Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Marrion]

He likes neither music his wife likes nor football.
=1) Neither does he like music, his wife likes nor football.
=2) He likes neither music, nor does his wife like football.
=3) Neither does he like music, nor does his wife like football.

From these sentences above, Are all these sentencesp[1, 2, 3] correct?


She was neither attractive, she nor had any talent.
=4) Neither was she attractive, she nor had any talent.
=5) She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.
=6) Neither was he was attractive nor did she have any talent.

From these sentences above, Are all these sentencesp[4, 5, 6] correct?

[asterix]

He likes neither the music his wife likes nor football.
He likes neither football, nor the music his wife likes.

It's about what he doesn't like, it does not say what his wife likes.

She was neither attractive nor talented.
5he had neither attractivess, nor talent.
5. would be correct if you wrote:
She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.

[Marrion]

I have another question...
=========================================
She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.
=[1] She was neither attractive nor she had any talent.
=[2] Neither was she attractive, nor she had any talent.
=[3] Neither was she attractive, nor did she have any talent.
=========================================

Are all these sentences(1, 2, 3) correct?

In the inversion of "neither .... nor", I have not found that in this way like [2], only "neither" except "nor" is moved with the auxiliary verb in front of the subject. But I have found that only "nor" except "neither" is moved with the auxiliary verb in front of the subject.

So I want to know [2] is correct really... and the others is correct.

[Mary W. Ng]

Question:

He likes neither music his wife likes nor football.
=1) Neither does he like music, his wife likes nor football.
=2) He likes neither music, nor does his wife like football.
=3) Neither does he like music, nor does his wife like football.

From these sentences above, Are all these sentencesp[1, 2, 3] correct?

She was neither attractive, she nor had any talent.
=4) Neither was she attractive, she nor had any talent.
=5) She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.
=6) Neither was he was attractive nor did she have any talent.

From these sentences above, Are all these sentencesp[4, 5, 6] correct?

Answer:

None of these sentences is correct. "Neither...nor" are correlative conjunctions; they are used in pairs to join items that are similar in grammatical form and function. However, "neither...nor" cannot be used to join two main clauses. To see what items these conjunctions join, look at the word or group of words immediately following each conjunction.

Question:

I have another question...
=========================================
She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.
=[1] She was neither attractive nor she had any talent.
=[2] Neither was she attractive, nor she had any talent.
=[3] Neither was she attractive, nor did she have any talent.
=========================================

Are all these sentences(1, 2, 3) correct?

Answer:

For the same reason, none of these sentences is correct because "neither...nor" do not join parallel items.

In the following examples, "neither...nor" join parallel items.

1. Neither battle nor death frightened him.
2. She is neither at home nor at school.
3. She neither was attractive nor had any talent.

In sentence 1, "neither...nor" join two nouns: "battle" and "death".

In sentence 2, "neither...nor" join two prepositional phrases: "at home" and "at school".

In sentence 3, "neither...nor" join two verbs: "was" and "had".

I hope this helps.
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com

[lotus]

She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.

She was neither attractive nor was she talented.

She was neither attractive nor talented.


All works...


Putting neither in front of was is correct, but slightly tilted.

Neither was she attractive, nor did she have any talent.



--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[Mary W. Ng]

She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.

She was neither attractive nor was she talented.

These are mixed constructions. "Neither" and "nor" do not truly behave like correlative conjunctions. Careful users of the language would try to maintain the parallel structure. I do believe that in tests or exams, students are expected to be able to identify and revise sentences with faulty parallelism.
_________________
Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com

[lotus]

I would challenge any native speaker to say that these two sentences are incorrect or not natural.

She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.
She was neither attractive nor was she talented.

In fact, I would say that the following sentence is extremely tilted:

3. She neither was attractive nor had any talent.



--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[Mary W. Ng]

I would challenge any native speaker to say that these two sentences are incorrect or not natural.

She was neither attractive nor did she have any talent.
She was neither attractive nor was she talented.

Those sentences are all right. As they are mixed constructions, they may not be deemed acceptable if a student is tested on faulty parallelism.

As for my revised sentence, "She neither was attractive nor had any talent", I totally agree with you that it was poorly written.

Your revision, "She was neither attractive nor talented", is flawless. Therefore, yours is the best version.

Cheers.

Mary W. Ng